Tangled In Frozen Fjords
by Notdyingfromdisease
Summary: Rapunzel was right most of the time. But not this time. Her and her husband are paying for it. BONUS Maximus one-shot in later chapters!
1. Chapter 1

"Eugene? Eugene! Eugene!" Rapunzel hurried through the castle, calling for her beloved husband.

"EUGE- oh there you are. Thank The Sun I was afraid I was going to have to summon the royal guards."

Flynn laughed under his breath and continued to brush a disgruntled looking Maximus (they were still working on their relationship).

"What could be so urgent that you'd feel the need to summon the guards to fetch know they don't like me," he said half-jokingly.

"An invitation arrived today. It's from Arendelle. The oldest daughter of the late king and queen, Elsa, is having her royal coronation. They want us to be guests at the ceremony."

"No."

"No? What do you mean 'no'? You can't just say no because you're a lazy sack of bones."

"I can. I did. And I'll do it again. No."

"Why not?"

"Because Rapunzel the last time we went on a trip it didn't go so smoothly." Flynn put down the brush, fetched an apple (also known as a peace offering) for Maximus, and marched defiantly out of the stables. Rapunzel quickly followed.

"What do you mean it didn't go smoothly? We found my parents, got married, and moved into the castle," Rapunzel replied indignantly.

"Need I remind you," scoffed Flynn, "That along the way we were hunted by greedy thieves and your crazy mother and royal guards and a bloodthirsty horse. I was almost skewered by a thousand weapons wielded by angry brutes in a pub. We nearly drowned. I was almost hung, then lost a fatal amount of blood from after being stabbed. And you were almost enslaved for eternity. ALL OVER THE COURSE OF TWO DAYS! Why in the name of The Sun would you think we need to go on yet another trip?!"

Flynn was breathing hard and looked slightly dishevelled. Rapunzel stood staring at him with an unreadable expression.

"Because," Rapunzel replied calmly, "Most of that was YOUR fault."

Flynn opened his mouth. Then closed it again. His brow furrowed and, throwing up his arms, stalked towards the castle, mumbling angrily. In his absence Rapunzel stole a small but triumphant smile.

*Having lost the first battle…and all the battles since…Eugene decided try one last time on the eve of the trip.*

Flynn leaned against the doorway of the bedchamber he shared with Rapunzel.

"Hey there, Punzie, You know I was just thinking; it would be a danger to our lives for us to go to Arendelle."

"Oh, goodness," mocked Rapunzel, "We've NEVER endangered our lives before."

"But this time we're CHOOSING to endanger our lives."

Rapunzel snorted.

"I'm serious!" cried Flynn, "The late king and queen of Arendelle died during their journey here just three years ago. And you just want to row our boat merrily into those same waters?!"

"Good point Eugene! My aunt and uncle died on the treacherous voyage to be guests at OUR wedding. It only makes sense that we return the favour by braving the seas to go to my cousin's coronation in THEIR country's history. Thank you for bringing that up, Eugene!"

Rapunzel kissed him on the cheek and skipped off to bed.

_Whelp, I'm all out of ideas, _thought Flynn,_ I would be married to the one woman in the world that The Smoulder doesn't work on._


	2. Chapter 2

Rapunzel carefully climbed the steps up from her cabin below deck, a bottle of tonic in her hand. Her destination was the man slung over the side of the ship. She couldn't see his face, but his shoulders and back convulsed at spastic intervals. She tapped him gently.

"I brought you something," she said quietly, "One of the sailors said it should help."

She held up the bottle.

The ill man turned his head weakly in her direction. Flynn looked dreadful. His was a soft lime color. His cheeks were sallow. He was shaking. The prince of Corona looked like he was about to collapse. Rapunzel genuinely feared that if the ship pitched too hard, Flynn would fall overboard.

"Th-thanks Punz-Pun-Pu-ooooooooh." Flynn groaned and turned towards the sea again.

Rapunzel waited until Flynn stood as upright as he was going to get. Then she uncorked the bottle and tilted to contacts into the back of his throat. He swallowed hard then burped wetly.

"No, baby you gotta keep it down or it won't work."

She waited tensely as Flynn struggled to control his gag reflex. After a long moment, he exhaled and nodded.

"Better?"

"Much."

"Come on, Genie. Let's get you below deck so you can lie down.

The couple began a slow walk back to the stairs. It was the end of the second day of their voyage. Flynn had been severely seasick the entire time, hardly ever leaving the side of the ship. Even sleeping on deck…in case.

Flynn and Rapunzel got back to their room where Flynn fell on the bed. Rapunzel tried to coax some water into him.

"I'm so sorry, Eugene. If I had known…"

Flynn lifted a hand to stroke Rapunzel's hair.

"It's okay, Punzie. If I had known…I guess those little rowboats at the lantern celebration didn't exactly count as braving the savage sea." He chuckled lightly. Rapunzel smiled.

This unforeseen mishap should have been the first sign that their trip was going to take a turn for worse. But they pressed on with the false hope that it would only get better from here. Boy were they wrong…


	3. Chapter 3

Rapunzel gawked at the spectacle before her. This was Arendelle. It was magnificent. It took all her nerve not to jump into the harbour and swim for shore as the ship slowly approached the dock.

"Hey, Punzie. You might wanna close your mouth. Princess drool is not attractive."

Rapunzel swatted at Flynn.

"I wasn't drooling, Eugene. I was simply admiring the country. Isn't it beautiful?"

Flynn shrugged.

"If you've seen one kingdom, you've seen them all."

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. They're conversation had distracted her, so she didn't realized that they had reached the port. As excited as she was, Rapunzel controlled herself. She was a princess after all and need to act as such in order to represent Corona well. Flynn certainly wasn't going to do that. Years of crime had left him a little…rough around the edges.

As the ship anchored, Rapunzel went to preparing herself to disembark. She ran her fingers through her short brown hair, attempting to make it look as decent as possible. Standing up straight, she clasped her hands behind her back, lifted her chin and was about to take a step off the ship when she eyed Flynn.

The former thief was slouching with his hands in his pockets and absentmindedly chewing on the inside of his cheek. Rapunzel cleared her throat.

"Look Genie. I know you're new to this whole royalty thing. I am too. But can you try to make yourself seem a little less like a thug?"

"Oh. Yeah, yeah. No problem I was just getting to that."

Flynn rose to his full height, jutted out his chin, and placed a hand gently on the small of Rapunzel's back. Together, they stepped off into what they thought would be a rather enjoyable vacation.


	4. Chapter 4

Since they had arrived in the morning and the coronation wasn't until late that afternoon, Flynn and Rapunzel decided to explore the kingdom. It was a pleasantly warm day. The sun shone brightly against a blue sky dotted with cotton candy clouds. Excitement was in the air. Nobles and subjects alike were hurrying through the streets, talking quickly. Rapunzel pulled Flynn around to every little shop and market. Not that he minded. He was just happy to be on solid ground. After hours of walking around and buying countless numbers of trinkets and gifts for her parents, Rapunzel and Flynn started for the castle.

The gates were huge and baffling. Yet, Rapunzel (she had very keen eyesight after looking at everything from the height of a 70 foot tower all those years) noticed rust around the hinges. The gates looked like they hadn't been opened for a very long time. Her suspicions were confirmed when they finally did open with an awful creaking sound. But that was soon forgotten as everybody began pouring into a large courtyard and then another giant set of double doors. They were led down a hallway and into a ceremony room. A royal guard showed them to their seats in the second pew. Flynn stayed quiet the entire time. As a new royal and a former criminal his social skills weren't exactly up to oar. But he was polite nonetheless.

The coronation ceremony was beautiful. The queen looked stunning in her royal garb. Only one thing disturbed Rapunzel. While Queen Elsa had been holding the ceremonial orb and staff it looked like they started becoming encased with _frost. _But it couldn't be. It was the middle of summer and nowhere near that cold in the room. And it had happened so quickly it mightn't have happened at all. While everyone applauded the new queen, Rapunzel glanced up at Flynn. His jaw was set. He had noticed too. Rapunzel was suddenly filled with a sense of unease.


	5. Chapter 5

"I'm telling you, Rapunzel something freaky is going on with that Queen Elsa!"

Flynn was pacing the guest room the couple was staying in. There was some time before the coronation ball and they were supposed to be coming up here to get refreshed. Instead, Rapunzel was sitting on the bed with a worried look on her face, watching Flynn and trying to reason with him.

"Maybe it's just an illusion placed on the objects to make the ceremony more magical."

Flynn cringed. He hated magic even though it saved his life.

"No. That doesn't make any sense. It has to be her! Who is born with hair that white?"

"People can be born with weird hair…" mumbled Rapunzel, staring at her hands.

Flynn stopped pacing and walked over. He kneeled in front of her and took her hands in his own.

"Hey, Punzie. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be like this. You know magic freaks me out. The unknown freaks me out. I know I need to stop judging it. Besides, we don't even know if what we saw WAS magic. So let's just go to the ball and enjoy ourselves. I'll even," Flynn shuddered, "_dance _with you. Deal?"

Rapunzel laughed lightly and kissed Flynn.

"Deal."

Flynn pulled Rapunzel up and they headed down to the ballroom for some fun.


	6. Chapter 6

The ballroom was decorated beautifully. Lovely aromas filled the air. It was warm and comfortable. Rapunzel talked excitedly with some of the other royals, giggling and smiling. Flynn leaned against a wall, watching his wife. He was glad she was enjoying herself. It was good that she was getting out and about after being locked up in that tower for so long. Flynn was also watching her royal highness Elsa. Why did she just stand there? Observing. Her back was so rigid. She looked as if she was trying her hardness not to enjoy herself. But this was her coronation. Why was she acting this way? Maybe Rapunzel was right and Elsa wasn't up to anything. Maybe she was just an uptight royal. Flynn decided to keep an eye on her anyway.

Rapunzel excused herself from the company of her new friends and joined Flynn in the corner. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her chin on his chest, looking up at him expectantly.

"What?"

"I recall you saying you would dance with me."

"Yeah…but Rapunzel…you know I don't really…"

He stared down into her big, green eyes. Flynn sighed.

"Ugh. Okay. Let's get this over with."

Rapunzel jumped and down and kissed Flynn on the cheek. He allowed himself to be pulled towards the dance floor. His wife grabbed his left hand in her right. She used her left hand to guide his right hand to her waist. Then she placed her left hand gently on his shoulder. Flynn gulped nervously. He didn't get nervous often. Rapunzel guided him.

"Step forward. Step back. Step forward step back."

Flynn was dreadfully out of rhythm, often treading on Rapunzel's toes. She flinched, but was patient with him.

"Good. Now keep that up while slowly turning in a circle."

"Like this?"

"Exactly!"

"Hey! I'm a natural. I knew I would be good at this. Let me lead now. I'm the man after all."

"Um…maybe I should keep leading. You got to lead the whole trip from my tower to Corona."

"Because you didn't know where you were going. And you were holding my satchel hostage."

"Well okay but-"

Their little spat was interrupted by a commotion in the center of the room. The queen was turning away from her younger sister, Princess Anna, who was stomping after her. Everyone had stopped dancing and were staring.

"Give me my glove!"

"No. What did I ever do to you?!"

"Enough, Anna."

"Why? Why do you always shut me out? Why do you shut the world out?"

Queen Elsa whipped around.

"I said ENOUGH!"

As the last syllable left her lips, ice magic exploded from the fingertips of her uncovered hand and curled into menacing spikes on the floor.

Time stood still.

"Sorcery!" yelled a tiny mustached man.

"Elsa?" gasped Princess Anna quietly.

Then all hell broke loose.

The queen ran scared.

People started shouting and stampeding out the door.

In the midst of all the panic, Flynn sunk to the floor and covered his ears with his hands. He began rocking back and forth. Magic. It had to be magic. Freaky ice magic. Flynn couldn't take it. It was too much for him. Someone kneeled in front of him. Arms wrapped around him and his head was resting against a soft chest. A nuzzled in his hair. Then Rapunzel started singing. Softly. Beautifully.

"_Flower, gleam and _glow.

_Let your power shine._

_ Make the clock reverse._

_ Bring back what once was mine._

_ Heal what has been hurt._

_ Change the fates design._

_ Save what has been lost._

_ Bring back what once was mine._

_ What once was mine."_

Flynn felt wetness roll down his face. It sunk into his cheek. He felt a glow from within. He exhaled fully, feeling better. His anxiety had disappeared completely. Even though he feared it, he love's magic had helped him…again. He looked up into her gently face. It was shining with tears. He was also crying. He hugged her.

"Thank you," he croaked

Flynn knew this wasn't the end. It was the beginning of something big. But he and Rapunzel could face it, together.


End file.
